Through the Darkness
by penguinsstolemysanity
Summary: Clover is a girl with a broken past who winds up under the care of Sirius Black when she is beaten inches from her life by Death Eaters. She teaches him to care for someone other than himself and he teaches her to be free. Rated R for later chapters.


Through the Darkness

Disclaimer: I do not own any of JK Rowling's characters, but I do own Clover and whoever else that I may think up during this story.

Authors Note: I'm really not sure what Grimmauld place looks like (I've only really read the fifth book once so far) and I doubt that in the real books that Sirius would actually be able to go into the backyard (if it even has one), but I'm going to stretch the truth and say that there is a backyard and that Sirius can in fact go in it.

Chapter One: A New Visitor

He sat in the darkened room with his knees brought up to his chin, somewhere to his left he heard the occasional crunch of rat skulls being crushed and eaten. He sighed and closed his eyes, absent-mindedly running his hands through his black hair that came down to his chin. It just wasn't fair. Why was he the one who was stuck there? As soon as that question popped into his head it was answered. _Because, Sirius, Dumbledore just doesn't trust you anymore, even though your name was cleared. You're just too much of a liability to the Order. _He was brought back to the present when Buckbeak the Hippogriff made a particularly gruesome crunch into a large rat skull.

He pulled himself up and stretched, letting out a groan as he did so. He walked down two flights of stairs and walked into his room. It was small, but he liked it. He had hung curtains that were dark red when he first arrived back and his walls were painted rain-cloud gray to cover the once previous dirty white walls. He stood in front of a gold-framed mirror and studied his reflections. He was only thirty, but his eyes seemed so old to him. They were gray like his room and seemed distant. He blinked and looked at his face. He had always been told by women that he was handsome, but he never truly saw it. He took a hair tie that had been lying on the ground and pulled his dark hair into a small pony tail and then he examined his face more closely. He just didn't see it.

He lowered his eyes to the rest of his body. He was around 5'10 and still very lean from his time spent in Azkaban, the wizard prison, but new muscle was forming on his arms and legs and he couldn't help, but feel slightly proud of his accomplishment. He had been trying to go swimming every day in a large pond that lay in the backyard of his house. His clothes looked oversized and old on him, but they were comfortable. They consisted of a dirty white t-shirt and a pair of flannel pants, he was still in his pajamas, but he couldn't muster up the energy to change. What was the point of changing anyways? It's not like he'd be doing anything outside of the house where other people would see him! He was all alone, not even Lupin or Tonks were there with him right now so why did it matter? He decided that it didn't and then left his rooms and began to travel down to the kitchen where he figured he would sulk for about an hour before going swimming. He didn't even make it down the next flight of stairs when there was a definite "clack!" as the front door opened and then a "bam!" when it closed.

He let out a small groan and walked the rest of the way down to the front door to see who was bugging him today. He reached the darkened hallway and was about to say "who's there?" when the voice of Dumbledore filled the hallway.

"Get a blanket and start a fire, Sirius." He pulled a girl into the dim light that was coming from the kitchen and Sirius was taken aback. Apart from being stunningly beautiful, she had blood coming down from her head, her lip was cut, and she looked as though she had been drenched from head to foot by the rain outside. Her brown eyes were unresponsive and she looked as though she was on the brink of losing consciousness. Dumbledore cleared his throat and Sirius, for the second time tonight, was brought back from his thoughts to the present. He nodded and quickly walked to the living room, lit a fire with his wand, and handed a blanket to Dumbledore which he wrapped gently around the girl. She seemed to drift off to sleep almost instantly and for a brief second Sirius was worried that she had died, but was relieved of his worries when he saw her chest rise and fall with air. Dumbledore cleared his throat once more and then spoke to Sirius,

"Sirius, I would like you to meet Clover."


End file.
